Ashes to Ashes 2.07. and 2.08.

[selenak]

Above lj cut resumé: last season I liked the last but one episode better than the season finale (though that was good, too, but it did have THAT speech from Gene which ticked me off); this season it's the reverse. Which isn't to say I'm completely happy; as with LoM, I think in both cases overall the first season was stronger than the second.

Comments

[abigail_n]

I'm a little more displeased with the Chris stuff than you, because I don't see his betrayal of Gene as being an aberration but an extension of his character from day one. He's always been the guy who bumbles along and takes the easy way out unless prodded to do otherwise. I thought the wedding planning subplot in 2.06 (2.05?) was telling, in that Chris needed so much help figuring out how badly he was screwing up, and so much coddling to accept that Shaz had wants and desires too that should be attended to. It felt like the ubiquitous story of the man-child who inexplicably wins the love of a much wiser, much more mature woman who is half wife, half mother. I see his falling in with the Rose people, and keeping mum about it even as the bodies piled up, as an extension of that childishness, so I'm very annoyed at this episode stating, through Shaz, that all that matters is that he feels bad when he screws up. Surely there comes a point where feeling bad isn't enough, and surely that point ought to come before a man is forty, and

[selenak]

I'm very annoyed at this episode stating, through Shaz, that all that matters is that he feels bad when he screws up. Surely there comes a point where feeling bad isn't enough, and surely that point ought to come before a man is forty, and before his selfishness and immaturity have put three people in the ground and one in intensive care.Oh, agreed, and I think they shouldn't have piled the universal forgiveness on Chris so fast but make him work for it through the next season

[nomadicwriter]

The opening sequence with Gene reading the story was hilarious. I really love the increasing friendship they've been establishing between Ray and Alex this season. I want more of that. (Especially if they do a Ray coming out storyline, which I've got to believe they're building to. Can we hope it will be an actual arc across season three?)

And I thought the ending was an extremely smart choice. It would have been a cop-out to have Alex just fail to wake up again, but sending her firmly and unambiguously back into 2008 would have made it pretty hard to send her back to the eighties without having her make some unjustifiable choices. So coma-within-a-coma is a clever way to open options for sending her back without making her actively choose it over being with Molly.

[selenak]

I really love the increasing friendship they've been establishing between Ray and Alex this season. I want more of that. (Especially if they do a Ray coming out storyline, which I've got to believe they're building to. Can we hope it will be an actual arc across season three?)

Amen to all that. Since there is a third season, and as I've said before, it would be something really essential to the 80s. When Ray defended Alex, what struck me most was that he wasn't even aggressive or posturing or reluctant about it - to him it was self evident that she was "our pain in the ass" and that they should therefore listen to her suggestions.

Ending: yes indeed. I really was afraid of either the "to hell with 2008, I'm staying here" option or another cop-out, but they found something to avoid both and be in character and to set up the next season.

[cereswunderkind]

I was surprised at how hard Gene was on Sam. It was my impression that he'd come to an accommodation with him - a position of mutual respect.

Or can he only reject Alex if he rejects Sam too?

[selenak]

We don't know yet the exact details of Sam's disappearance/death, only that he supposedly drowned when chasing someone in a car, but that his body was never found. But Ray says in the AtA pilot that Sam would not have died "if he had listened to the guv", which makes me suspect that Sam and Gene must have at the very least have an argument about the case they were involved in when this incident happened, and I wonder whether Gene believes or suspects Sam might have committed suicide. Which could have left him feeling deserted or betrayed, since Gene is the type to take this personal and make it about himself.

Or it could simply be, as you say, a double rejection in the heat of the moment.

[silverweave]

What I am pleased about with the season is that they embraced the weirdness- and not in the just stupid ott way that the US LoM finished- but in a way that's made me actually believe that the writers aren't just being up theselves when they say they have a brilliant explanation for who Gene is that's on it's way. I don't feel like it's being made up as they go along, like Lost, while they wait for inspiration, that it is all actually building to something. I thought the ending in the future / present was creepy, cool and intriguing

[selenak]

The frequent Sam references made me wonder, too, but we'll see him again, it will probably only for the overall show finale, given that I doubt they'll get John Simm back for more than an episode.

I'd even like it if next season the action took place in two timelines; Alex's present (maybe with Ray? could that be the purpose of s2's friendship building) and the 1980s?

That is a cool idea; I'd love for Alex to meet an older Ray, and it would be creative if she doesn't return to the 80s immediately at the start of the new season but if this takes a while. (Mind you, they will of course let her return to the 80s, because that's the concept of the show.) And/or if she keeps switching between the two timelines and is uncertain whether the 2008 one is real or a coma within a coma; in which case having an ally, i.e. older Ray, could be very important.

[silverweave]

And/or if she keeps switching between the two timelines and is uncertain whether the 2008 one is real or a coma within a coma

Ooo, that would be cool! Possibilities are half the fun of fandom, I reckon.